Stacking Stones​A Creative Craft Blog

From the mind of Jason Kapcala comes an eclectic journal dedicated to the study of creative writing, rock music, tailgating, and other miscellany. The musings, meditations, contemplations, and ruminations expressed here are my own unless otherwise indicated. Please feel free to share your comments, thoughts, and opinions, but do so respectfully and intelligently.

Well, we've reached the half-way point of the 70s, and I know what you're thinking, two Fleetwood Mac songs in three weeks? Well, I didn't plan it that way, but that's the fun thing about this trip through the decades, it's hard to anticipate what is going to happen. The truth is Fleetwood Mac is generally not one of my favorite bands. I like them, but I don't love them. That said, there aren't many songs better for listening to on a long night drive than this week's selection . . . .

"Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac (1975)

All your life you've never seenwoman taken by the wind

This is a song about an old Welsh witch.

At least, that's what Stevie Nicks says when introducing this song in concert. Stevie has always been something of a bohemian gypsy herself, and so, for many, this song is sort of her trademark number. Written in 10 minutes on piano with then-boyfriend Linsdey Buckingham during the pre-Fleetwood Buckingham-Nicks days, this song is as spooky as its namesake.

The story goes that Nicks discovered the character of Rhiannon while reading a novel called Triad by Mary Leader. Nicks had picked the book up on a whim at an airport convenience store so that she would have something to read on a long plane ride. In the novel, the lead character Branwen believes that she is possessed by the ancient spirit of Rhiannon. The character of Rhiannon is actually a part of the earliest surviving British prose text. According to myth, she shuns a god and marries a mortal man instead. In retribution, she is framed for murdering and cannibalizing her son and is forced to stand at the entrance of her city every day to be ridiculed and shamed by all who enter, carrying them on her back as a beast of burden. (FYI, the story does have a happy ending when the child is found safe.)

Nicks didn't know all this background at the time. What she did know is that the name was so beautiful she simply had to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. She considered a musical, a movie, a cartoon, and a ballet, before settling on the song. Later, when she had learned more about the Welsh legend, Nicks was surprised at just how well the lyrics fit. "I didn't know who Rhiannon was, exactly," Nicks said. "But I knew she was not of this world."

This supernatural quality is made manifest in the lyrics: "Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night / and wouldn't you love to love her?" and "She is a cat in the dark / and then she is the darkness." The duality of the character--that she is at once nowhere and everywhere, something and everything--could not be a more fitting match to the low, building eddy of the music. And that numinous quality is at the heart of what makes this song so great.

When writing "Rhiannon," Nicks was affected deeply by the song, and after laying down her initial demo, she told Buckingham, "You can produce it, but don't change it." The song quickly became a crowd favorite, jumping to #11 on the Billboard charts, and when she sang "Rhiannon" in concert, she would sometimes sing with such intensity that she'd strain her voice, which meant that the band would have to cancel future shows so that she could recover. Years later, on an episode of VH-1's Behind the Music, Mick Fleetwood would describe the song's passionate climax a being "like an exorcism."

The association between Nicks and Rhiannon doesn't stop at the music though. Some folks have suggested that the song has meant so much to Nicks that it has inspired her style--the long black clothing and scarves, the swirling mystical stage presence that's become Stevie Nicks' trademark. And though she embraces this connection now, there was a period of time for about two years where Nicks stopped wearing black because she had grown tired of answering questions about witchcraft and the dark arts.

"Rhiannon" was listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

So what do you think? Did I get it right or miss the mark? Please, feel free to weigh in using the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.